ByeCube?

[G a f f e r]

Very silly idea but is Nintendo saying bye bye to its Gamecube?
1) CEO said it was their last home console
2)Nintendo themselves seem to undervalue their console by retailing it at 2/3 price of the others (makes most lay people think it's an inferior console)
3) Most retailers don't stock it anymore or don't really promote it (pc world/ dixons etc)
4)Nintendo themselves never promote it
5)new games not appearing at all on the NGC (burnout3?)
5)Are Nintendo planning to release N5 2005/6????

Silly q i know but there's no point me considering one if it goes the way of the dreamcast or due to be replaced soon...

(PS was considering the MarioKart se pack for £80 brand new)

[CrispyXUK]

Gamecube is here to stay mate, new machines from all companies should be out next year though. Anyway Nintendo have never put a lot into advertising compared to its rivals as they enerally dont need to.

[G a f f e r]

It's VERY tempting.

I might be able to get hold of a USA one for free......(nick it off my nephew - his tv doesn't support ntsc but my projector does... so he has never used it)
Just need a transformer...
But the crystal xbox is also tempting (apart from the fact that it's £140 that is).

Genuinly can't decice, but I remember loving the old N64 around my cousins house years ago and would be interested in the cube for mariokart and mario sunshine amd starwars......etc, etc. They do tend to have genuinly different games rather than just trying to copy eachother (xbox vs PS2).

I'm missing GT3 on my PS2 (gave it to other nephews last week) and the only thing holding me back is the above worries re:support and the total lack of decent driving games (just found out driv3r won't be on it either )

[Tetlee]

If you could afford it I'd buy both the Gamecube and the Xbox, however if I could only afford a choice of one, I'd probably go for the Cube. Reasons, basicaly a handfull of games present and future, namely MarioKart DoubleDash (classic game!), Resident Evil 4 (I'm sure it's gonna be amazing and I'm a big fan of the series), MarioParty5 (haven't bought it yet, waiting for the iminent price drop ) and MarioGolf! But then I admit, the Cube IMO is the best multiplayer console (apart from online of course, guess if you want online play then Xbox would be yer best bet).
You can really pick up some Cube bargains, I bought my Cube as a bundle for only £79.99, sold a couple of the games that came with it I didn't want on ebay, in the end it worked out that I payed £45 for the Cube 2x controlers and MarioKart DD
Anyway, that's just my opinion, personaly I like all of the consoles and wouldn't knock any of 'em. That's why I bought them all

[Miyazaki]

There is already a thread on here discussing which console to get, so lets leave all that discussion there.

Nintendo have a good line-up this year and I don't see the console going the way of the Dreamcast. Even if it did it isn't really a big deal as I still play on my Dreamcast ever since I got one in 1999.

[G a f f e r]

my apologies, i don't want it to descend into Best Console.....you're right. I was just concerned re: nintendo's percieved lack of support, but you've answered that...

[James45]

Nintendo's lack of support for the Cube (especially in Europe) mystifies me, they don't seem to be doing anything to counteract the gradual disappearance of the console and it's games from stores. I can't believe the lack of advertising either, there were a few TV in the run up to the console's release, a few multi-title ads then the tacky pricedrop ads and that was it.

I wouldn't be suprised if the general public did think it was an inferior console, personally I'd get a lot of new blood in at Nintendo Europe and get a half intelligent ad agency to come up with a decent campaign before thinking of releasing GC2. Also this fiasco with the three top selling UK titles (harvest moon, twin snakes and FFCC) virtually selling out across the country (in the case of HM completely selling out) is crazy.

[CrispyXUK]

I think they tend to rely too heavily on built in customers who want to play Nintendo games (me and many others), they need more third party games on the system, but they are always using the smaller storage format which I think turns developers off.

[James45]

are you talking about their smaller discs? The amount of gameplay most developers can fit on those is astonishing. Besides do the majority of PS2 and XBox games manage to fill entire DVDs?

[CrispyXUK]

nah PS2 & XBOX games would normally fit on a GC disc, but Sony & Microsoft must be offering developers more insentives than Nintendo but whats wwith the lack of RPGs?

[Sinzer]

Yeah, I am waiting for Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia!!!

Symphonia will be out in the states in June, I had mine on pre-order the day dvdboxoffice listed it, I was sad enough to check for it nearly every day! lol

[Miyazaki]

Originally posted by James45
are you talking about their smaller discs? The amount of gameplay most developers can fit on those is astonishing. Besides do the majority of PS2 and XBox games manage to fill entire DVDs?

I think KOTOR was 6GB or there abouts. The newer xbox games are creeping up to 4GB, but I think the GC disc holds about 1.5GB. Res Evil 3 on GC was over 2 discs, which was a little annoying.

Nintendo can't rely on word of mouth anymore. They need to advertise. It is pretty infuriating. The GC went online in stealth mode. Hardly anyone even knows there are modem and broadband adaptors for it!

[CrispyXUK]

You got to find the adaptors first

[Azrikam]

I wouldn't worry about the Gamecube. Even if Nintendo came out today and said, "we're scrapping the Cube", there's still a mess of games in the pipe, and the system's been around long enough to build a decent library. Nobody should feel ripped off if no more new games went into development.

What you should be worrying about is the first point. Will Nintendo be in the next round of the console wars?

[CrispyXUK]

Nintendo will definatly be in the next round, they are one of the biggest companies in Japan with stacks of cash to make new hardware, all I wanna see is the new controller